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Understanding the Beautiful World of Being Multilingual Through the Lens of Brilliance and Complexity

Stella Villalba leads educators through a process to discover the brilliance and complexity of multilingual learners. Rather than searching for a list of strategies, Stella encourages us to linger with our questions and discover multilingual learners’ beauty.

Using Digital Photos to Enhance Learning

Stella Villalba uses photos in the classroom as a powerful tool for critical thinking and reflection. Photos allow students to process complex learning as it happens.

Mother Language Day and Tradition Presentations

Bitsy Parks shares special events that help students widen their scope of acceptance and appreciation for the differences among us.

Teaching Transition Words

Tara Barnett and Kate Mills work with a second-grade team to think through how best to teach transition words during a fairy tale unit, especially to students who are English learners.

Building Reading Identities Across the Year

The start of the school year is often all about building reader identities in classrooms. And then October comes, and many of the activities that help students celebrate their reading histories and preferences are forgotten. Tara Barnett and Kate Mills share ways teachers can continue to help students define, refine, and expand their reading identities all year long.

Conferences with Parents of English Language Learners

Jen Schwanke and Stella Villalba share practical tips for conferring with parents of English language learners.

The Right to Be Seen

Stella Villalba is at a loss when a teacher is hostile to a new English language learner in her classroom. She considers the unspoken challenges of welcoming students who may have ever been in school before.

Retelling and English Language Learners

Retelling is an essential skill many English language learners struggle with. Stella Villalba finds tackling vocabulary in context is the key for many.

Refugees: A Children’s Booklist

There is probably no population more misunderstood or vilified than refugees. Stella Villalba shares a booklist to help young students understand the refugee's plight and experiences.

One Child, Many Stories

Asking the right questions of family members can get you far more valuable information than anything from an assessment, especially when you are dealing with English language learners. Stella Villalba explains why initial meetings with new families are crucial.

A Year of Learning About Student Refugees

Did you know the average length of stay in a refugee camp is 17 years? That’s only one of the many astonishing facts Stella Villalba learned as she worked to learn more about the needs of the refugees in her school district.

Fostering More Rereading in Classrooms

Stella Villalba explains why rereading is especially useful for young English language learners, and shares some simple strategies for integrating more rereading strategies into reading and writing workshops

Getting to Know English Language Learners All Year Long

We spend a lot of time early in the year getting to know students and their families, and often celebrate the diversity of these families late in the year with multicultural festivals. Stella Villalba worries that this is a missed opportunity (especially with English language learners). She shares how teachers can integrate getting-to-know-you activities into regular classroom routines all year long.

First-Grade Conferring: A Two-Word Picture Book

Bitsy Parks shows how even the simplest picture book can lead to powerful conferring. In this example, a first-grade English language learner is reading a picture book that uses only two words in the text.

Rhyming Words and English Language Learners

Stella Villalba explains why focusing on rhyming words is crucial for young English language learners.

Parent in a Foreign Land

Jennifer Schwanke shares some of the unique struggles parents of English language learners have in making their children's needs known, and how we can help them.

Environment and English Language Learners

Stella Villalba finds English language learners struggle less when teachers understand what adaptations are needed in the classroom environment.

Plans for Writing Circle

Stella Villalba starts writing workshop with her young English language learners by having everyone share their plans in a community circle.

Books That Mirror the Children in Our Classrooms

Stella Villalba shares some of her favorite children’s books that mirror the home cultures of English language learners.

Modeling Nonfiction Writing for English Language Learners: Part 3

Stella Villaba models nonfiction writing for her first- and second-grade English language learners, and in the process integrates vocabulary instruction into her lesson. This is the final video in a three-part series.

Modeling Nonfiction Writing for English Language Learners

Stella Villalba models nonfiction writing for her first- and second-grade English language learners, and in the process integrates vocabulary instruction into her lesson. This is the first video in a three-part series.

Learning Vocabulary in Context with English Language Learners

Stella Villalba explores why it is so important to teach vocabulary to English language learners in context.

Modifications for English Language Learners

Stella Villalba shares some modifications that can help English language learners demonstrate skills and knowledge.

Knowing Ami: Silent Communication with an English Language Learner

Katie DiCesare finds patience and observation are the keys to helping a first-grade English language learner who is in the silent period.

My Journey with Marcos: Autism and English Language Learners

Stella Villalba finds she needs new strategies for assisting a young autistic English language learner.

Time for English Language Learners

Stella Villalba finds what English language learners need more than almost anything else is patience with silence and time to formulate responses.

Words with Friends

Melissa Kolb explores what needs to be in place for our youngest students to learn how to converse kindly.

English Language Learners First-Grade Guided Group

Stella Villalba leads a guided reading group of first-grade English language learners, beginning with building vocabulary.

The Silent Period

Do you have English language learners in the silent period in your school? Stella Villalba has tips for teachers working with them.

A Classroom for Elementary English Language Learners

Stella Villalba gives a tour of her classroom library and publishing corner designed to support the grades 1-5 English language learners she works with daily.

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